Saturday, August 15, 2009

Frenetic Fringe Festival -- Weekend 2 Bullets

Last week I complained about the Fringe Festival not being quite "fringe" enough. This week was an improvement on that score, and over-all a more interesting and pleasurable evening. You can still see it tonight (Saturday, August 15) or tomorrow. Again to be brief, I'm going to use bullets.

There's a Tsunami at Your Door

A short play by Mary Ellen Whitworth.

A woman about to commit suicide is interrupted by a desperate cable salesman.

Similar to "Velocity" from last week it its use of a tragedy that happened in the past as the cause of what's happening now.

But it is a straight-forward narrative, not fractured like "Velocity."

The acting was slightly raw.

The play had funny moments despite its grim subject.

Dancing Diana

This struck me as fairly innovative.

Instead of a musical score, there were three short, personal stories by Diana Weeks.

They were recorded by her and played over loudspeakers.

She sat stage (she's an older woman, perhaps in her 60s or 70s) while the dancers danced.

The dancers "interpreted" her story through dance.

The connection was tenuous, but--

Both aspects--the story and the dance--were enjoyable.

It was like, say, riding your bike while listening to your Ipod. You get simultaneous pleasure from both activities.

Spelling Bee Sluts

A short play by Paul Locklear.

Slight, farcical story about a hillbilly who comes to L.A. to make it big on the spelling bee circuit.

He ends up working as a male prostitute.

A pretty minor piece of work, I'd have to say.

G.I. Joe PSAs

These were cartoon public service announcements from the 1980s, featuring the G.I. Joe characters telling kids about safety.

Eric Fensler has recorded new dialogue for them.

This had the potential to be funny but predictable.

But Fensler's dialogue (often sounds or made-up foreign languages) was absurd and bizarre.

It wass still really funny--but not in an easy or obvious way.

Thurmond, W. Va.

A documentary by Laura Harrison about a soon-to-be ghost town.

18 people still live there.

The National Park Service has bought out most of the folks in town. The intent is to turn this coal mining town into a park along the lines of Mystic Seaport.

It felt like a typical documentary, one that had neither the power of the old-school documentaries of, say, the Maysles brothers.